Clinton and the Electability Myth

The following poll results where released yesterday by Quinnipiac University:

The report summarizes the findings as follows:

American voters back Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont over Republican candidates by margins of 4 to 10 percentage points in head to head presidential matchups, according to a Quinnipiac University National poll released today. The closest Republican contender is Ohio Gov. John Kasich who trails Sanders 45 – 41 percent.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton trails or ties leading Republicans in the November face-off…

It continues:

Sanders has the highest favorability rating of any candidate and the highest scores for honesty and integrity, for caring about voters’ needs and problems and for sharing voters’ values. He ties Clinton and Trump on having strong leadership qualities and falls behind Clinton and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on having the right kind of experience to be president.

“It’s certainly Sen. Bernie Sanders’ moment. The Vermont firebrand leads all potential GOP rivals in raw numbers and raw emotion with the best scores for favorability and several key character traits,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

And the reports concludes with this:

“Sanders has a lackluster 51 percent favorability rating, but that’s better than all the rest. Most of the top candidates have negative scores.”

It is looking more and more as though Clinton’s claims to electability are not only overstated, but that they are rubbish given the political climate of 2016.

Now it might be the case that voters are not familiar with Sanders, but at this point his socialist label is no secret. People are familiar with Clinton and that is not translating into an electoral tidal wave.

The lack of enthusiasm for Clinton among Democrats does not bode well for the Democrats in a general election. Additionally, in a year with heightened anti-establishment sentiment assumptions about New Democrat electability might be outdated. Of course, those assumptions have likely been outdated for quite some time.

To the extent that electability is a factor, Bernie Sander is the candidate that Democrats should support if they are serious about their concerns related to the Supreme Court and keeping the GOP out of the White House. While that is

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Comments

Polls are not infallible, I know, but this should be shocking news to the Democratic Party and its leaders. If Trump is the only candidate HIllary Clinton can beat, and Bernie can likely beat all of them, why are they claiming Sanders is unelectable while it is really Hillary that is likely to lose the White House? It seems to suggest that she is a poor choice for the Democrats.

I suspect it is because the numbers are soft right now and the DNC knows that once folks find out who Bernie really is and actually learn now to do math his pie in the sky, a big one for each and everyone, his support will wain.